Balance Druid in Mythic+

Balance Druid is one of the top ranged DPS specializations for Mythic+ in
Battle for Azeroth. It provides moderate multi-target damage on higher level
keys, as well as extremely valuable heavy single target and priority target
damage. Additionally, Balance Druid provides the group with invaluable utility
through both talents and our base kit.

If you are unfamiliar with Mythic+ and its associated general mechanics, you
can read more about it on our dedicated Mythic+ page below.

Balance Druid Mythic+ Rotation

Both the single target and multi-target rotations do not change in Mythic+
content. For more information about the Balance Druid DPS rotation, refer back
to the Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
page.

1.2.

Balance Druid Tips

One of the most important things to do in Mythic+ is to pool your Astral Power
towards the end of every trash pull to reduce the ramp-up time needed to reach
your maximum output. Being able to get directly into your rotation pack-to-pack
is extraordinarily helpful when bursting down priority targets.

Use your cooldowns liberally. In an uncoordinated group, you may want to
talent Starlord over Incarnation: Chosen of Elune. If you find
yourself not being able to get full value from the extra 10-seconds of cooldown
duration, Starlord may be the better option. Regardless of your choice of
cooldown, using it early and using it often will generally be the best course of
action to increase your output. The exception to this is directly before bosses
or before difficult trash pulls.

1.3.

Balance Druid Utility

Balance Druid provides support for the party through damage, healing, and
other additional effects such as dispels and mob management.

Solar Beam is one of the strongest silences in the game. Solar Beam
can be used to silence a large amount of mobs for 8-seconds in a small radius.
This can enable pulls which would otherwise be impossible, due to an interrupt
requirement.

Typhoon is an iconic Balance Druid spell. This will knock
enemies in front of you away in the direction the cast was aimed. Use this to
knock enemies away from the tank, yourself, or away from special mob specific
mechanics such as Sanguine pools.

Force of Nature acts as an artificial taunt that relieves the tank
of all melee damage. This talent has become almost a staple for Mythic+ due to
the threat generation nerf applied to tanks that came with Battle for Azeroth.
This is also particularly useful during Necrotic and
Skittish weeks.

Soothe has been added back to our baseline kit and will dispel
all enrage buffs applied to enemies. This talent is particularly useful during
Raging weeks.

Entangling Roots can be used to root patrols. If you root the
primary target, the entire patrol will stop moving. Useful in tight quarters
when you cannot handle additional mobs.

Regrowth was buffed in Battle for Azeroth, and it provides much
more healing than it did in Legion and can be useful to help off-heal in
certain situations.

Restoration Affinity has proven to be a strong self and off-healing
option in BfA. Swiftmend is a strong single target instant heal which
can help recover a quarter or even half of your Health pool. Use this if you do
not need additional passive damage reduction.

Innervate is best used on heavy group damage boss encounters.
This will allow you to expand your healers Mana pool and allow them to extend
the duration of the encounter if needed.

2.

Mythic+ Talents for Balance Druids

Below are the suggested talents for Mythic+, these talents are recommended
for all groups and keys at the current time.

Mythic+ Affixes

The way Mythic+ affixes are tiered in Battle for Azeroth has changed quite a
bit since their launch in Legion.

There are now three weekly affixes and one seasonal affix. The first affix
available instantly at level two and three, the second affix starts at level
four, the third affix enabled at level seven, and finally the seasonal affix at
level ten.

3.1.

Tier One Affixes

Fortified increases the Health pool of all non-boss enemies
by 20% and damage dealt by 30%.

Tyrannical increases the Health pool of boss enemies by 40%
and their damage dealt by 15%.

Fortified and Tyrannical are the two
affixes every player will see. These affixes shift the focus of dungeons from
boss to trash depending on the week. Balance Druids will excel during Fortified
weeks as our multi-target damage has a short ramp up time and then will sustain
at very high numbers with or without the use of cooldowns. During Tyrannical
weeks, players may want to take more single-target oriented trinkets, gear, or
even talents but that will be both dungeon and key level dependent.

3.2.

Tier Two Affixes

Raging increases the damage dealt by enemies below 30% by
100% until they die. This buff is dispellable using Soothe. Not all
enemies will need to be Soothed, but you should Soothe enemies that deal
excessive group-wide damage.

Bolstering buffs remaining enemies Health pools and damage
dealt by 20% when an enemy dies nearby. To counter this affix, DPS all mobs down
evenly and focus your casts into high Health mobs if there are any.

Sanguine places a pool of blood on the ground when a mob
is slain. This pool will heal remaining enemies who stay inside the zone and
also damage players. Balance Druids should take Typhoon to push
enemies off of each Sanguine zone.

Bursting forces enemy mobs to detonate when slain,
afflicting the group with a stacking debuff that causes players to suffer 10%
of their max Health in damage every four seconds. When handling the Bursting
affix, ask how many stacks your healer can handle and try to not mindlessly DPS
and exceed your healers stack limit.

3.3.

Tier Three Affixes

Volcanic spawns volcanic plumes underneath and around
players when in combat with any enemy. When damaged by Volcanic, players suffer
50% of their maximum Health pool in damage. The more enemies you are in combat
with, the more Volcanic that will spawn.

Grievous afflicts players with a stacking DoT when they
fall below 90%. Use Regrowth liberally during Grievous weeks and
bring consumables to assist your healer when out of combat.

Quaking will periodically attempt to interrupt casters by
creating a damaging zone around each player. About 3 seconds after the zone
forms, it will deal 20% maximum Health in damage to each player caught in the
zone as well as interrupting any hard casts being finished during the
shockwave.

Explosive will occasionally spawn
Explosive Orbs that need to be targeted and burned down within a
short period of time or they will deal significant damage to the party.
Explosive Orbs are not cleaveable and the amount of orbs that spawn scales with
the amount of enemies pulled.

Necrotic debuffs the target of enemy melee swings with
stacking healing reduction and minor DoT. Balance Druids should utilize
Typhoon and Force of Nature to assist tanks in kiting
enemies before they become unhealable.

Skittish reduces the amount of threat generated by tanks
throughout the dungeon. Use Force of Nature as an artificial taunt on
Skittish weeks.

3.4.

Seasonal Affix

Awakened spawns four lieutenant style mobs that allow you to
skip trash throughout the dungeon without using a rogue.

The only way to enter the void realm and kill the mini bosses is to click on
an obelisk which requires a cast time and is generally guarded by a pack of mobs.
You can not click while in combat. When running with a Rogue, Mage, or any class
with a way to kite mobs and drop aggro, you may want to consider using
Mass Entanglement. Mass Entangle does not put you in combat and can be
used to keep the kited mobs in place while your final group member enters the
realm.

3.4.1.

Seasonal Tips

There are no real tips to improve your damage in this affix. Control is going
to be your key to excelling in Beguiling keys.

Force of Nature is viable to tank spells, physical hits, and adds in
certain pylons. It is particularly useful against Urg'roth, Breaker of Heroes, to
eat the potentially fatal Spirit Breaker.

Power of the Moon and High Noon are strong extended
multi-target traits. They do not offer much in regards to single target so see
what type of damage your group needs before equipping these. Power of the Moon
can be a strong value trait for most keys.

Blightborne Infusion and Swirling Sands are two examples of
secondary stat increasing Azerite pieces. If you can get high item level pieces
of Azerite with secondary or primary stat procs, they will be useful for
Mythic+.

The raid trait Heart of Darkness is just additional secondary stats.
All stats have value on multi-target.

5.

Mythic+ Essence Recommendations

There could be arguments made for other Essences but these are two of the top
performing Major Essence choices at the current time.

Vision of Perfection (Vision of Perfection + Strive for Perfection) is a strong overall essence for Mythic+. It
reduces the cooldown of your Incarnation: Chosen of Elune and allows you
to hit it much more regularly. This proc gained on trash and on bosses helps
propel your overall damage in keys as opposed to being focused purely on one or
the other.

Essence of the Focusing Iris (Focused Azerite Beam + Focused Energy) is a strong trash damage Azerite Essence,
which can be chosen when you are looking to deal burst damage to packs and is
one of the better Major Essences. Better in lower keys where trash dies
particularly fast.

5.1.

Minor Essence Recommendations

Balance Druid Minor Essence choices are very flexible and completely
determinate on your playstyle and what you want to slightly improve. They do
provide some good extra DPS, so they are not negligible, but you can choose between
these are your discretion.

Blood of the Enemy (Blood-Soaked) is a strong minor trait for Mythic+. The buff stacks
very quickly and you have a high uptime on the Haste buff.

Essence of the Focusing Iris (Focused Energy) will retain the Haste stacks if you can
splash your damage to the target which anchors your stacks. This Essence will
also be strongest for most bosses in most dungeons. If the mobs are constantly
spread, this Essence will not be good.

Purification Protocol (Purification Protocol) does a modest portion of your damage in keys.
Not good in keys with a lot of kiting or spread mobs and does not perform well
on boss fights.

Conflict and Strife (Strife) stacks quickly and has a very high uptime in keys.
The extra Versatility is also good for negating damage done from heavy hitting
abilities and keys that require a large amount of healing.

Breath of the Dying (Lethal Strikes) is used as a corruption reducing trait, as
most corrupted effects are worth losing Essence damage for.

6.

Corruption Recommendations

You can not have the best corruption for every given setup, but there are a
few generally good corruption choices for Mythic+.

Twilight Devastation is a mid-ranged, burst, multi-target damage
corruption effect. This loses value on single-target, so is best for when your group
is lacking on trash and not bosses.

Expedient can give us a multitude of additional Haste. Given that
it is generally our most stacked stat choice, this would be better than most
other % increase corruption effects.

Honed Mind is one of the better stat proc corruptions for
multi-target, as Mastery scales well with more targets. Racing Pulse and
Void Ritual are also both good stat proc effects.

7.

Changelog

20 Apr. 2020: Expanded on the Seasonal Affix.

14 Jan. 2020: Updated for the release of Patch 8.3.

29 Jul. 2019: Updated Essence Recommendations.

20 Jul. 2019: Updated Essence Recommendations.

07 Jul. 2019: Updated for Mythic+ Season 3.

24 Jun. 2019: This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary.

23 Jun. 2019: This page has been reviewed and no changes are necessary for the release of Patch 8.2

15 May 2019: Added additional Reaping and general Balance Druid tips.

16 Apr. 2019: This page has been reviewed and no changes are necessary for the release of the Crucible of Storms raid.